EMU sports informationCurtis Vollmar of Eastern Michigan runs the opening leg of the distance medley relay at the NCAA indoor track and field meet.

Curtis Vollmar is as goal-oriented as any distance runner, but his goals were relatively modest as he approached the end of his final season of college indoor track.

Injuries have a way of tempering expectations.

An iliotibial band injury sharply curtailed his training. Achieving great things at the national level weren’t part of his mindset as he battled through the toughest injury of his Eastern Michigan University career.

“I didn’t get very many opportunities to race,” the 2005 Grand Blanc High graduate said. “I was just trying to get healthy and able to compete at our conference meet. That was my main goal.”

Vollmar returned in time to win the 3,000 and 5,000 meters at the Mid-American Conference meet, leading EMU to its 13th league indoor title in the last 15 years.

There was much more for Vollmar to achieve, however.

Curtis Vollmar He teamed with Ackeem Forde, David Brent and Blake Figgins to break a 15-year-old school record in the distance medley relay with a time of 9:32.72 in the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame. That time qualified the quartet for the NCAA meet in Fayetteville, Ark., where Vollmar ran the opening 1,200-meter leg in 2:56.03 for the Eagles’ fifth-place relay team last Friday.

It was a finish that earned All-America status for Vollmar and his teammates.

“That’s probably the highlight of my career,” said Vollmar, who never qualified for an NCAA meet in cross country or track.

“It’ll look good, not just from an athletic standpoint, but for any kind of positoin, like coach or any kind of professional job. It’ll be a good title to have. The circumstance of not training at all the way I wanted to and just a month-and-a-half ago I was just worried about competing at my conference championship, it’s definitely great.”

The Eagles’ relay team finished in 9:38.44, less than two seconds behind first-place national powerhouse Oregon.

EMU was in third place when Vollmar handed off the baton to Forde. At that point, Vollmar was powerless to determine his own fate. Figgins, a Detroit Mumford grad, ran the 800 in 1:50.19 before Brent finished with a 4:04.88 mile split.

“Blake went out way too hard, 25 seconds for the first 200,” Vollmar said. “Watching him on the jumbotron, he looked really bad. I’m like, ‘Hold on, Blake! Hold on! Hold on!’ He handed off in third, then the race just slowed right down. That was stupid. The California guy had a two-second lead on the field and he just slowed the whole race right down. It turned into a tactical kind of sit-and-kick thing. It was a 12-man bunch on the anchor leg. I knew David could get at least the top eight, but I wasn’t sure how it would go.”

Vollmar is now preparing for his final season in an EMU uniform, outdoor track. He would like to continue competitive running after graduation, but is more focused on doing what is necessary to begin a teaching career that may one day lead to a coaching job. He will begin student teaching in the fall.

“I’d like to keep training at least until the Olympic Trials in 2012,” Vollmar said. “I don’t know if real life’s going to allow for that. I’m just going to see what happens. You have to want to do it. Definitely, it’s not about the money.”